Page 63 of Wild Wolf
“Whathappened?”
He seemed so caring and concerned, all her barriers broke like water squeezing through a hole in a tight dam. Jordan shrugged out of her shirt, unbuckled her jeans and turnedaround.
“This is what he did!” She pointed to the ink on her lowerback.
Silence for amoment.
“He’s the reason I had to get this ink. Bryce hurt me. He carved his fucking name on myback.”
Turning around, familiar shame and grief surged. That night, the utter helpless feeling as the two women had held her down. Bryce had laughed, and the hot bite of pain as he sank the knife into herskin…
“Bryce said, he said, he wanted you to know he put his mark on me first. So every time you went to take me in the traditional mating position, his name would bethere.”
She gulped down a breath. “He would have done worse, but they started arguing and I turned around, kicked at him and ran off. He hated you, Nolan. Hated you for being the eldest, always getting the attention, inheriting the pack. Anything that was yours he wanted to ruin. Including…me.”
More silence fromNolan.
Screams she’d suppressed for years threatened to escape. Jordan took a deep breath, fighting forcontrol.
Nausea swirled inside her. Six years she hadn’t told a soul. Six years of suppressing the awful truth. Talking about it made the panic rise, ripped open the wound to bleedfresh…
A half-laugh, half-sob escapedher.
“Why didn’t you tell me what he did, Jordan? Or my father?” he askedquietly.
A long silence draped between them. Jordan bit her lower lip so hard she tasted blood. What terrible irony…she’d lied to Nolan to drive him far away from her, so he’d forget about her and move on. And now her own lies caught her in a tangled web ofdeceit.
“My father would have done something if you told him,” headded.
Jordan stared at him, rage bubbling insideher.
“Your father was a bastard, as much as your brother was. I’m glad they’re bothdead!”
Nolan went still. “Jordan…”
“Blood always wins with your family. Craig made that known from the day I moved into your home. I wasn’t blood. Oh, he was good to me, but he always pointed out that pack and blood camefirst.
“I told your father what Bryce did. He didn’t believe me. And then later, Bryce warned that if I didn’t leave the pack and go far away, worse things would happen tome.”
Nolan fisted his hands. “I would have protectedyou.”
“Against your own damn brother? And your father, who thought he could do no wrong. Bryce wanted to take away from you whatever you had – your father’s affections, your birthright. Everything. And me. He hated the fact that you were my firstlover.”
Her voice dropped to a bare whisper. “I packed my things and ran as far as I could so no one would find me again. Because being in a pack is bad news for females like me. Pack wins. Ilose.”
Jordan pulled up her pants and buckled them, and shrugged back into her shirt. Nolan pushed a hand through his hair and paced. Anguish twisted his expression, but it wasn’t as heart-wrenching as the pain in herchest.
He wouldn’t believe her. Pack always came before family. A hardness replaced the pain, the same hardness that toughened her, enabled her to survive on her own for six long years and forsake the only real home sheknew.
“Screw you, Nolan Mitchell. Believe what you want. It won’t change thetruth.”
Adrenalin and fury fueling her, Jordan ran outside. She leapt over the railing of their porch, landing twenty feet below on her feet, and raced off toward thehills.
This time she was never comingback.
13
He’d losther forgood.
